Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and mother to six children. she wished to show the North the evil of slavery through its inhumanity and it separating families. her antislavery ideals were inspired by the evangelical religious crusades of the Second Great Awakening.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

written by Harriet Beecher Stowe; hundreds of thousands of copies were sold in the first year, and millions were in total. the book was translated into over twenty languages, and it made slavery appear ALMOST as evil as it actually was. after reading this novel many Northerners swore that they would not enforce the Fugitive slave Laws, and this helped them maintain their determination to wipe out slavery. this novel was popular in Europe, Britain and France especially, and it also prevented the common people of the two nations from aiding the South.

The Impending Crisis of the South

written in 1857 by Hinton R. Helper who hated both slavery and African Americans, and was from North Carolina. he argued through this book that the non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery. this book had little affect on the people it was intended to, which was the poor; but the souther plant aristocracy feared that the non-slaveholding majority would abandon them, and this book was made illegal in the South. the Republican party, however used this piece as campaign literature.

New England Emigrant Aid Company

this was a group payed for by a group of northern abolitionists, who settled in the West. this group sent two thousand people to the West to prevent Southern progression as well as make money for the abolitionist cause. Henry Ward Beecher funded money for this cause.

John Brown

he was extremely dedicated to the abolitionist cause, and he moved with the majority of his large family from Ohio to Kansas. he led his followers to Pottawatomie Creek in May of 1856, where he attacked the proslaveryites. this action completely obstructed the free-soil cause, and in addition to this, the proslavery forces quickly retaliated.

Lecompton Constitution

this was the tricky Kansas Constitution made up by the proslavery group. individuals were not allowed to vote against the Constitution as a whole, but vote for the Constitution either with or without slavery. the people that supported slavery had a branch of the Constitution that would protect the pre-slave owning people already in Kansas. the with slave Kansas Constitution won in 1857.

Charles Sumner

the Senator of Massachusetts, who was a leading abolitionist, and was cold, humorless, and egotistical, and therefore one of the most disliked men of Congress. he made negative comments about the Senator of South Carolina named Andrew Butler. on May 22, 1856, he was beaten by Preston S. Brooks by a cane, and was forced to leave his seat for three and a half years due to injury, he was sent to Europe for treatment. he was reelected for his seat purposefully by those from Massachusetts; he seat therefore remained empty.

Preston Brooks

congressman from South Carolina; he was enraged by the remarks of Charles Sumner to both the South and his senator. on May 22, 1856, he took it upon himself to beat Sumner with an eleven ounce cane, although his code of honor truly called for a duel. he was given canes (some gold) from his Southern supporters; the House could not gather enough votes to expel this congressmen, but he did resign, and was later reelected.

James Buchanan

he was the Democratic candidate chosen for the 1856 elections because both President Pierce and Douglas were too strongly impacted by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. he was a Pennsylvania lawyer, who was serving in London during the time of the Kansas-Nebraska ordeal.

Know-Nothing PArty

this was a party organized by the group of nativists who did not support the immigration of the Germans and the Irish into the nation. this party nominated former president Willard Fillmore as their candidate. these people did not support Catholicism or immigration, and remaining members of the Whig Party endorsed this party.

Dred Scott Decision

brought to Supreme Court on March 6, 1857. Dred Scott, a slave living with his master for 5 years in Wisconsin and Illinois Territory, sued for freedom because he lived on free soil for such a long period. since he was not a citizen, the court ruled that he could not sue because he was a slave. as a result of this case, the southerners ruled that the Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional because the government did not have the right to ban slavery from a certain region. parties such as the Republican party were set back, and the southerners were angered by the defiance because they believed that if they did not win the Supreme Court did not follow the Constitution.

Justice Roger B. Taney

the leader of the group who wished to further go into the meaning of slavery through the Dred Scott Decision. he was from the slave state of Maryland, and mainly wished to further address the cause to forestall the opinions of two free-soilers who were preparing decisions.

Panic of 1857

was not as bad as the panic of 1837 financially, but it was the most psychologically thrilling panic of the century. caused by inflation from California gold, overstimulation of grain growth for the Crimean War in Russia, and land speculation in addition to railroads, the panic made five thousand businesses fail within a year. unemployment and hunger meetings swept mainly the North, the South, protected by king cotton, was able to ride out of this crisis harmed minimally. as a result of this Congress passed a homestead act in 1860, which granted western land for twenty-five cents an acre; president Buchanan vetoed this act.

Abraham Lincoln

a springfield lawyer who was entered as the Illinois senatorial candidate of the Republican party, he would be running against Douglas. he was born in 1809 in a log cabin in Kentucky, to a poor family. he married above socially, into the Todd family; his wife often had temperamental outbursts, which help to train him in patience. he was a Whig politician and served a term in Congress (1847-1849). he was self taught, and one of the top twelve lawyers in the state. in 1854, he was angered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and moved to Illinois where he became Republican. he was at the Philadelphia Convention of 1856, and received 110 votes to be the Republican nominee, even though Fremont won.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Lincoln's debate to Douglas, which amounted in seven debates from August to October of 1858. Lincoln was a poor orator, and relied on logic rather than table-thumping. the most famous debate was in Freeport, Illinois. the question posed by Lincoln questioned whether the people or the court prevailed, regarding to the Supreme Court prevailing in the Dred-Scott case. Douglas argued that the slavery would stay either up or down depending on the voting of the territorial legislature. these debates were one of the preliminary battlefields of the Civil War.

Confederate States of America

South Carolina promised to leave the nation if Abraham Lincoln was elected into office, which he was. South Carolina, later followed by Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, held a convention in which they decided to secede from the nation. in February of 1861, the seven states formed a government and gave it this title. the president of the confederation was Jefferson Davis.

Jefferson Davis

a recent member of the U.S. Senate from Mississippi, he was the president of the Confederate States of America. in addition to being a member of Senate, he was a former cabinet member with a wide military and administrative experience; he aspired to be a Napoleonic strategist.

John Jordan Crittenden

the senator of Kentucky, he proposed the Crittenden amendments, which were meant to appease the South; he had fallen the mantle of Henry Lee of Kentucky.

Crittenden Ammendment

-slavery prohibited north of 36 degrees 30.' -south of line given federal protection in territories existing and soon to be acquired. -further states could enter the union either pro or anti slavery. -slave supporters granted full rights in Southern states as long as they were territories, regardless of the wishes of the majority under popular sovereignty. federal protection of slavery in a territory of the South, may permanently turn the entire area into a slave area.